This invention relates to the general field of footwear, and in particular comprises a new protective accessory for use with safety boots of known structure, and to the combination of that accessory with such a boot.
It is known to provide protective footwear for workmen in hazardous occupations. In addition to being quickly removable, in case of entrance of hot or otherwise injurious material, protective boots of this sort generally have a rigid toe-protecting cap built into the toe of the boot, and may also have a metatarsal cap for protecting the arch of the wearer against impact. For convenient donning and doffing of the boot, any metatarsal cap must be hinged or otherwise yieldably associated with the rest of the boot.
Heretofore, boot design has always included any metatarsal cap as a built in feature, like the toe cap, and the manufacturer has been required to maintain stocks of two complete lines, one with the metatarsal cap and the other without it, as this protection is necessary only for workers in some industries, and their greater cost is not justified in other industries.
It has also been noticed that when workmen wear boots with internal protective toe caps, they are much more careless in how they walk, what they kick, and so forth. This in fact extends so far that the boots frequently must be discarded because of worn toe caps while they are otherwise in serviceable condition.